Beans 'n' Bourbon

Old friends had a big do in their barn this past weekend.  They really did it up all good and proper, with a stage and lights, a full bar with home-brewed beer and moonshine, and pots and pots of home-made beans.  We fed and drank and sang and danced it just felt like home.  There was a circus performer that flew in from Brazil, there were shadow puppets, there was burlesque.  There were a lot of great musicians, and they were even kind enough to let me play a bit.   I wanted to show a cross-section of what the Instrument Works has been producing, so I did a few songs on a bunch of different stuff.  Another friend was kind enough to video it, and I wanted to store them here.  Fair warning, some of the language is not church ready.

Starting off with the original canjo.  I have decided that I like to play it with a slide.  Makes for more seamless changes between the notes:

Next was the 10 Mile Banjo.  I love this tune that I learned off of a Mississppi Fred McDowell record.

Then the Punch Tenor.  I love this little guitar.  Fun to play and sounds good too.  And I love this Malvina Reynolds tune, too.  I have been playing it a lot lately.

Next up was another old song, I think I learned it from the Memphis Jug Band, but it might have been Gus Cannon.  We used to play it with the Brooklyn Jugs.  "You May Leave."  Good tune.

The last instrument was the banjo uke.  As you can see, I have re-worked it pretty substantially, adding a pie-tin resonator and frets up half the neck.  This is another one that I love playing, it has a real punch to it, it's really loud.  And little.  The tune is "Bring it With You," another old jug band tune.

I finished up with a tune of mine, written when I worked in Red Hook Brooklyn.  I used to love playing this to Brooklynites.  Been a while since I have been in front of any.  This was always a good song to play to a room full of pretty drunk people, which luckily was what we had here.  It was a good way to go out.

All in all a great time.  A real hoot.

Fairbanks Syringe Uke (IW#41)

I wanted to try my hand at a fretted uke.  The only one I had made heretofore was when I retrofitted this uke with frets.  It plays pretty well, and that along with the tenor guitars I have made have demystified the fret-setting process.  So I set about making a uke with a box that I got at the flea market.  It had been a syringe box that someone had decoupaged a couple of magazine photos to.  I think they are covered with shellac, and a pretty heavy coat at that, so my sense is that the photos were applied quite a while ago.  The box held a "Fairbanks Syringe, and the label on the inside is so cool that I almost tried to remove it and put it on the outside.  In the end, though, I chose to just photodocument it.  Here is what it looks like:

The frets came out well (the neck is red oak salvaged from a pallet, juts like the slide guitar that is IW#40).  I made the choice to make a "0 fret," which makes the placement of the nut less critical.  It works pretty well, well enough that I am ready to move on to other ukes that I have boxes for. 

The lid of the box is plywood, so it is not a very bright sounding uke.  Here is what it sounds like:

Slide guitar (IW#40)

I just got back from playing a great show in Maine in my friends' barn, called Beans and Bourbon.  I'll post videos soon.  I knew there might be folks there that might want some found-object instruments, so I made a couple to take with me.  One of them is essentially the same as the very first instrument I built, which I have taken to calling the Ten Mile Banjo.  This is the one I played at the Kennedy Center with Dance Exchange.

I learned something with this one:  I tried using a bolt for the bridge, but it made for a very muted sound.  I have seen several cigar box guitars ("cbg's" in the lingo of those who write about them on the internet) with a bolt as the bridge, but those have been electric.  When they are acoustic it is a pretty bad choice.  So I made a wooden one (oak, though I like pitch pine or maple better for bridges) and the difference in the sound was impressive.  It sounds pretty good.  I strung it with heavier strings than I did the 10 mile banjo, thinking that might make it louder, but it is about the same.

Here is what it sounds like:

Jewelry Box Tenor (IW#039)

Well, my first instrument back on the horse after the residency is this nice little tenor.  The body is a beech jewelry box from the flea market.  It has a lid that is 1/8" plywood, and is actually a nice little box.  It is a little twangy, but it sounds pretty good.



I tried a new thing for the head, which I like a lot.  It is a little fancy, maybe, but I wanted to try something different than just the rough end of the plank I use for a neck.  The tuners are out of the scavenge box.  Not sure where they come from, actually, but they are pretty old.  And the tailpiece is one of the Oneidaware fish forks that I got a handful of at the flea market.  I have been really pleased with the fork-as-tailpiece thing, it lends a nice quality to the tail end of the guitar.

Here's how it sounds:

Getting from Here to There

I have been getting a lot of mileage out of showing these instruments to folks.  I often fine that I need to take the same four or five instrument out at the same time.  I had been throwing them all in a bag and trying to be careful, but it turns out that is not a particularly safe way to transport them.  So I built a case, which has been more successful.  I originally bought a nice old suitcase at the flea market, but it proved too small for the tenor and the 10 Mile Banjo (which is soon to be seen at the Kennedy Center in Washington D. C.), so I set out to build a case.

A place for everything and everything in its place.

I broke out the gold leaf, something I had not done in a long time.

All of the lumber and hardware was stuff that I already had on hand.  The sides are the bottoms of some drawers that I repaired, the beadboard had been shelves in our basement when we moved in.  And it fits perfectly in the trunk of my car.

There is a can screwed in to the side to hold picks and slides and kazoos, and a spot that either accommodate the Miss Syracuse Uke or my cigar box full of harmonicas.  This show is ready to go on the road!

An Assortment of Shakers

Though my focus here at the Instrument Works is on stringed instruments, tonight at the gallery opening (you know about the gallery opening right?  And you're coming right?  Okay, good.  Glad to hear it.) part of the event will involve getting the audience to be a part of the festivities.  To that end some friends made some bean shakers in soda cans, and I made a small assortment of bottle-cap shakers.

 

I especially like the tambourine in the middle, made from the top of a cookie tin. The bottle caps at the top are real loud, it should be fun for someone to play tonight.  I think it will be a hoot.  See you there.

Rehearsal time

On Thursday we present the installation, so this morning four students and I met to try to figure out how to play these things.  Luckily one of them is a composition major, and two of the others are guitar players, so it went pretty well.  We were able to approach the whole project organically, and we ended up with a sweet little ditty, named, of course, "Staircase in the Key of D."  On Thursday we will be presenting the piece twice, once for someone who will be filming and taping us, and then again for anyone that shows up to watch.  So, you know, if you are in Syracuse, come watch.  Should be weird.